Bronagh
I lay in bed, trying to slow my brain down so I could sleep. It wasn’t cooperating. Today has been a whirlwind. I’d been up for close to forty hours. I should have passed out, but I hadn’t.
After the wreck and then the incredibly insane talks with the O’Sheerans, I’d somehow allowed Darragh to talk me into accompanying him and his cousin to their compound.
I don’t know exactly how Dad and he did it.
His words were a blur. I think I was under the influence of the pain medication. Or that was the excuse I told myself.
The helicopter ride here had been incredible. I’d been on plenty of planes, both luxury and commercial, but never in one of those. It felt like we had barely gotten airborne before we landed. That’s when I discovered they had a helipad inside their family compound.
If I thought the helicopter was nice, it was nothing compared to the compound.
Rumors had circulated for years about what it was like, but almost no one had ever been inside.
And those who had kept their mouths shut.
A car was waiting to drive us the short distance to a house the size of a castle.
It was massive. I stared out the car window at the sprawled-out monstrosity of a house we were riding up to. I glanced over at Cathal.
“That’s your parents’ house?”
“Yeah, the three sets of parents and mamó live there. However, they raised all fifteen of us there, and back then, we had daideo, Grandpa Conall, living with us, too. Add to it cousins and extended family who would stay with us, and it was full,” Cathal explained.
“It’s slowly becoming filled again,” Darragh remarked.
“How? You’re renting it out for football teams?” I joked.
We all laughed, including Kendric, who drove the car we were in. They’d introduced him when he picked us up. Their security guys were in another car.
“No, with grandchildren. There are seven, with the eighth one due in two weeks. That’s Rian and Gianna’s baby.
And then, after the new year, we found out that Cian and Miranda are having their second baby in September.
They aren’t saying what it is yet. We’re hoping by the time we all settle and finish having kids, we’ll have at least forty.
The house won’t seem that huge then,” Darragh explained.
“Forty!” I exclaimed.
“Yeah, but if we need more room, our houses have several bedrooms each,” Cathal pointed out. He gestured to the houses within direct sight of the front of the main house. “Those are Cillian, Darragh, Aidan, Rian, and Cian’s houses.”
“I can’t believe this. I’ve heard rumors about this place.
People are always curious about it. They wonder what it’s like inside.
There are overhead shots from planes and drones, but they still don’t give you the true scale.
Everything is beautiful. It’s a wonder you ever want to leave.
Don’t get me wrong, Florida is wonderful.
I like it far better than New Mexico, though don’t tell my family that.
New Mexico has its pretty sights, but I love being near the ocean and the tropical feel, rather than the arid. ” I confessed.
“How did you end up in Florida?” Cathal asked.
“I got accepted to a college here, and it was the one I wanted to attend. Dad hated that I insisted on going this far away, but since we kept our relationship low profile, it worked to our advantage. It made it easier for many people to forget I existed, especially my uncle, Irial.”
“I remember your uncle. He was quite the bastard,” Darragh said quietly.
“Yes, he was, and not just to outsiders. He didn’t treat his family much better, sometimes worse.”
The car had stopped outside the mansion, but we didn’t get out. Cathal kept talking.
“When he went to prison for tax evasion, we thought the whole family would lose everything,” Cathal confessed.
“If he’d had his way, we would have. Irial had lined up a couple of assets as his alone and fed his money through them, thinking it would hide it from the IRS.
Everything else remained in the structures my grandfather had established.
Irial thought the new way would make the money invisible and even grow it more. ” I smiled as I said it.
“Where the hell did he get that idea? Whoever his financial adviser was, he should’ve fired them,” Darragh said.
“He overheard a conversation and, thinking it was true, made the changes without consulting his adviser,” I added.
“What conversation?” Cathal asked.
“One between his niece and her friend on the phone, who he thought was her financial adviser.
He had been hounding me about how much money I had and said it belonged to the family, as a family asset.
Everyone else pooled their money together because he ordered it.
That allowed him to spend whatever he wanted. They were too scared of him to object.
“For the longest time, he ignored me and labeled me as useless until he got suspicious and wondered what I was making. I wasn’t living in luxury, but I wasn’t destitute either. He overheard me telling my adviser to shift more money to the invisible pipeline so it would grow faster.
“When I got off the call, he confronted me and threatened that if I didn’t tell him about it and how it worked, he’d strip me of every dime I had and force me to move home. I explained it to him.” A smirk grew on my face.
“You set him up,” Cathal said softly. There was a look of awe on his face.
“I did. I knew he was there. The person on the other end was a friend of mine who knew exactly where I was and how my uncle was. Irial took the bait, and then all I had to do was wait. It took a year, but in the end, he was caught, and the evidence was too much for him to bury.”
“He would’ve had you killed even from behind bars,” Darragh stated.
“He would’ve. He had it lined up. There had been a couple of close calls before his trial. However, when he was shanked and died, the contract died because no one was paying.”
There was silence for several beats before Darragh asked. “Bronagh, did you put a hit out on your uncle behind bars?”
I gave him a shocked look. “Darragh, how would I do that? I have no idea how to do things like that. I’m a fashion designer.”
“Like hell that’s all you are. You did it. The family doesn’t know the mastermind among them. Does your dad?” Cathal asked.
“My dad is the only person who truly knows and accepts me in my family. As for the rest, I love some of them, but they have their faults and are blind to them. They have to be protected from themselves. This move to more legitimate enterprises is key.”
“They have no idea the minnow is really a shark,” Cathal said, amused. The three of us laughed.
That had been when we got out of the car.
Cathal refused to let me walk. I was carried into the mansion and soon after, greeted by the bulk of the O’Sheeran family.
I was uncomfortable being there, but everyone was so nice and concerned.
I felt warmth from basic strangers and pseudo-enemies that I wouldn’t have gotten from my family, except for Dad.
The day had passed in a whirl of activity. I was fed a wonderful breakfast. Then they took me to my suite. It was to die for gorgeous. It consisted of a huge bedroom with its own large ensuite bathroom. There was enough room for a seating area, and I saw myself curling up with a book in it.
I thought I’d be left to my own devices and to sleep. However, sleep still wouldn’t come, so I explored my room. When that got to be too much, and my pain increased, I lay down. As if he knew, Cathal appeared with water and a pain pill. He sat with me while it took effect, and we talked.
Mostly, it was about memories from our childhood.
Stories about his siblings and cousins. They were so close it made me jealous.
After I was feeling better, he offered to give me a tour of the house.
It was a lot, but every space was tastefully decorated.
It was clear they had wealth, but it wasn’t displayed ostentatiously.
Walking the entire thing would’ve been a bit too much for me with my battered body, but I had nothing to worry about.
No, Cathal didn’t carry me. Somewhere, he found a wheelchair and insisted I ride in it or in his arms. As much as I secretly enjoyed being in his arms, I knew the smart move was to take the chair.
He patiently pushed me all over the house.
I spent lunch eating and talking to the four matriarchs of the family.
I spoke with reverence to Saoirse O’Sheeran.
Everyone had heard of her. She was in her early nineties yet sharp as a twenty-year-old.
Nothing got by her, I could tell. She and her late husband, Conall, had built the foundation of the O’Sheerans.
I knew he hadn’t done it by himself. It took a strong woman to back him up.
She was delightful and insisted I call her Seerie, not Mrs. O’Sheeran.
Her daughters-in-law were equally as kind and insisted on first names as well.
By the time the meal was over, I’d been ready to be alone.
It wasn’t because they were unkind or anything.
It was the opposite. The entire family was welcoming and treated me as one of their own.
I wasn’t used to that. At home, I was either barely tolerated or ignored, except for a couple of exceptions besides my dad.
It hurt to think family could be like this: warm and caring.
I got up, went to the bathroom to take care of business, then dressed in a T-shirt and leggings before getting back into bed.
Deciding to try to read, I turned on my bedside lamp and dug out my Kindle.
I was searching to see if I had anything in my library I hadn’t read when there was a soft knock on my door.
“Who is it?” I called out automatically.
“It’s Cathal. Mind if I come in?” his deep baritone asked.
I hesitated a second, glancing down at myself.
I was covered more than adequately by the T-shirt and leggings.
That had been another surprise. Later in the day, two suitcases’ worth of my clothes, plus personal care items, had appeared like magic.
I’d been a little upset that someone had been sent to go through my things, especially intimates.
However, I was then introduced to the one who did it.
I expected it to be one of their security guys, but it wasn’t.
It was a security woman named Presley. She was Gianna’s regular guard, but since Gianna was staying home while awaiting her baby’s arrival, Presley was free.
She and her cousin, Reign, who was also a bodyguard, had been flown back to Tallahassee to retrieve my things.
Among them were my laptop and my briefcase.
I’d been too surprised and touched to get too angry with them for doing it without telling me.
I asked how they got in. Cathal smiled and said they took my keys from my purse while I was on the tour.
I’d have to keep an eye on them. Scrambling back to the present, I hastily called out, knowing I’d left Cathal standing in the hallway. I answered.
“Yes, you can come in. It’s unlocked.”
The fact that I hadn’t thought to lock my door was telling about how easily they lulled me into feeling safe. I had to be careful. The further involved I got with them, the harder it would be to leave when Dad came for me.